It is a matter of common notoriety that the modem industrial populations are improvident in a high degree and are apparently incapable of taking care of the pecuniary details of theb- own life. This applies, not only to factory hands, but also to the general claas of highly skilled mechanics, inventors, technological experts. The rule does not hold in any hard and fast way, but it holds with such generality as may fairly be looked for. The present factory population may be compared in this respect with the class of handicraftsmen whom they have displaced, as also with the farming population of the present time, especially the class of small proprietary farmers. The failure of the modern industrial classes on this head is not due to scantier opportunities for saving, whether they are compared with the earlier handicraftsmen or with the modem farmer or peasant ; nor is it
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due to a lack of general intelligence, for a comparison in point of intelligence falls out in favor of the modern industrial workmen. This improvidence is commonly discussed in terras of deprecation, and there is much preaching